The Push by Ashley Audrain (2021) First thing we should mention.......we're grateful to the publisher of this novel for not mis-labeling it and wrongly marketing it as a thriller., even though thriller tropes appear in it from time to time.
It is exactly what it's touted as - a disturbing psychological drama.
Readers may mistake it for a thriller initially, since it covers the same well worn ground that dozens of books, films and TV shows have dealt with - a parent coping with the horrendous revelation that their child may be a murderous sociopath.
You can trace such plots back to its ancestor, the 1954 William March novel "The Bad Seed" and the subsequent hit Broadway play and film adapted from it.
While "The Bad Seed" play and film were pitched at the high hysteria level of a horror tale, author Ashley Audrain has way more on her mind than goosing an audience with the scary spectacle of homicidal child.
She digs deep into the tortured,,bedeviled mind of Blythe Connor whose inability to establish the bonds of motherhood with her baby girl Violet gnaws at her. Blythe can't comprehend what or who's to blame - her own failure to properly love and nurture her daughter......or maybe there's something terribly wrong with Violet, a fundamental piece of humanity in her that's missing, which sets her apart from other children.
Cleverly, that's the very same question a reader will ask as the novel proceeds on its sad path, filled with tragic, heartbreaking moments and events. (Which per our policy we'll not talk about here. You need to immerse yourself in this story yourselves.....)
"The Push" is a gripping read alright........but we're not entirely sure what to make of the book's last sentence, where Audrain delivers what she no doubt thought of as one last kick in the teeth.
Depending on how you feel about the rest of the book, it may strike you as expected and inevitable or a facile, cheap ploy to garner the kind of attention the book wasn't seeking in the first place.
It's a deeply unsettling story, so prepare yourselves for a strange journey into this peculiar heart of darkness inhabited by a mother and her daughter. A creepy place to be.....4 stars (****)
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